Dr. Seuss goes to Japan: ideology and the translation of an American icon

Abstract

: This article examines the history of the translation into Japanese of perhaps the most quintessentially American children's author – Theodor Geisel or ‘Dr. Seuss’. As this article argues, there have been several waves of translation, but at all times larger ideological currents have played a big role in determining which books were translated and how. This article pays attention to the ways that the choice of text and translation style reflect larger ideas at work within society. For instance, the Japanese version of The 500 hats of Bartholemew Cubbins, translated by Ōmori Takeo in 1949, was published during the postwar SCAP Occupation, an era in which Dr. Seuss’ liberal, anti-imperialist story held special resonance for the Japanese population. Later, during the 1970s, the prominent translator Watanabe Shigeo translated a dozen Seuss works, but in ways that modify the messages in order to better match the zeitgeist of the era in which he was working. The newest translations have been spearheaded by the feminist poet Itō Hiromi, who has translated Seuss in ways that decenter and destabilize the male privilege implied in the original texts, thus carrying his liberal agenda in a new direction appropriate for our contemporary moment.